7. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Chapter 1: RevengeUpdate notes

Upon loading up the game for the first time, you'll be put into the first-person perspective of a man who just woke up in a hospital in Cyprus. A nurse will run off to tell the head doctor before you see the title screen for the first time.

Main Ops 00: Awakening

V, as the nurse has referred to you as earlier, will wake up in the presence of a Greek doctor. The first few minutes serves as an opening to the controls and how Big Boss ended up in this hospital anyway. The doctor will eventually explain that the world wants Big Boss dead and will ask you how you want to look after he performs plastic surgery on you to save your identity. Go with whatever design you feel like, although it's better to go with something realistic instead of something completely ridiculous.

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Regardless of what you feel like looking like, the doctor will not go with the surgery, and you'll be given another cutscene; this initial mission is about an hour long with cutscenes, which you shouldn't skip, so there will be a lot of these. Series director Hideo Kojima is a big fan of movies, and it shows in the Metal Gear Solid series.

The patient in the next bed over from you, despite his seemingly worse facial condition, will be more than ready to escape the hospital with you after the events that just occurred. Most of the mission is simply following "Ishmael" and what he tells you to do as you escape mercenaries and the Man on Fire (along with a particular kid). Once you get a pistol, you'll be near the end of the gameplay for the prologue; try to go for headshots and clear the lobby, then run out the hospital door.

The next thing you have to do may be tricky, as it isn't particularly obvious. After trying to leave the hospital, go right back over to the front doors and cn_S dive out of the way of those coming into the hospital so you can finally get out of the building. You'll ride with Ishmael in an ambulance for a while before the two of you part ways.

As the Man on Fire approaches once more on a fiery unicorn (you'd have to be psycho to conjure something like that up) you'll conveniently hitch a ride with a familiar face, who will give you a shotgun to ward off the Man on Fire's attacks from behind. This is also not overly instructive; you don't need to be firing at him constantly, but only when he gets too close or when his arm is raised, as the latter signals an incoming attack. Firing the shotgun at him when his arm is raised will cause him to lob fireballs off-target, which is obviously desirable. You and Revolver Ocelot will eventually get out of harm's way, ending the prologue.

You'll very likely get an S Rank on Main Ops 00 without even trying, unless you spent an intentional amount of time going in every direction but where you're supposed to or have otherwise increased your time spent by dying repeatedly. These are fairly hard to do, however, so the S Rank will likely be yours on your first go. You'll also earn heroism after the ranking screen, but you'll learn more about this later.

On Ocelot's horse, he'll explain to you that your old partner Kazuhira Miller is being held prisoner in Afghanistan and will most certainly be killed in two weeks tops. You'll get a proper mechanical arm like a particular teacher had in Latin America ten years ago on the way to Afghanistan to save Miller.

Main Ops 01: Phantom Limbs

When the two arrive in Afghanistan, Ocelot will show you how to use your new iDroid to check the map, use the Int-Scope (binoculars), and place markers. The first place you're directed toward is Da Vialo Kallai, as there may be some intel there on Kaz's exact location as opposed to a general one. If you head over to the village and use your Wu S.Pistol to tranquilize enemies, you'll be able to find the intel in one of the buildings. You should normally aim for the head, but if you're not doing so well with that yet, you can also fire twice in their bodies and wait a few seconds for them to fall over. Alternatively, you can sneak up behind enemies and point the pistol at them to hold them up, and you can knock them out by cn_R2 choking them out. If you wipe clean either the outpost on the way to the village or the village itself, then you'll get a trophy for it.

  • Captured

    Capture an outpost or guard post.

    Captured
    Offline Mode - These trophies require play in game modes that do not require a connection to any live services, such as Play Station Network.Single Player - These trophies can be obtained by a single player.

You won't be able to understand what the soldiers are saying if you interrogate them, even though they're speaking Russian; Ocelot will let you know that it's probably a result of there being a large chunk of shrapnel in your head. When you get the intel, ride D-Horse to Da Ghwandai Khar and scope out the area from a far distance to identify as many enemies as you can. Then sneak your way into the area and take out whatever soldiers are in your way so you can find Kaz. He's going to be in the building that has a special song playing on the radio.

Cut Kaz loose and get him out of Da Ghwandai Khar towards the extraction point, which will soon be covered by a gas that prevents the chopper from landing. Your pilot Pequod will head to another point that's clear of the gas, but a new threat blocks your path: the Skulls. These are the guys that attacked Kaz's men earlier, and he knows how much of a threat they are. You can't really avoid the Skulls here unless you feel like waiting an incredibly long time; just ride on D-Horse with Kaz straight into them and book it towards the chopper. The Skulls will not continue to chase you outside of the gas, allowing you and Kaz to safely get onto the chopper.

Don't worry about your rank this time around, as you'll easily be able to improve it later.

Kaz will tell you about how things have been for him for the past nine years and his strong desire for revenge on Cipher and others responsible for the attack on Mother Base nearly a decade ago. He too has lost some limbs and will be sent to rest while Ocelot teaches you how to run Mother Base in the next Main Ops.

Main Ops 02: Diamond Dogs

To make Mother Base stronger, you'll need more staff members. The legend of Big Boss is strong enough to persuade just about anyone to the cause, so all you'll really need to do is extract soldiers out of the area with the Fulton Recovery Device. Knock out the nearby Mother Base soldier with your tranquilizer and Fulton him to put him into the R&D Team. After that, Ocelot will show you your staff list in the iDroid and will walk you through developing a cardboard box for use in the field after you extract a few more guys.

You can request supplies to drop at just about any location, which is what you'll be doing with the cardboard box. This is incredibly useful, especially in the early game, since you'll find yourself running out of supplies fairly quickly. You may even want to call in a supply drop just so you can have a new suppressor after your existing one wears out during a mission. Supply drops do cost GMP, however, but you should have plenty of that for now.

Once you get your supplies, you should call in the chopper to pick you up, but first you should finish Ocelot's training. Stand near him and listen to his instructions; grab hold of one of your staff members and knock him out so you can extract him, then strike another and extract him. Doing this fulfills the other two Mission Tasks in this Main Ops, which means that you won't have to replay this again later. The mission doesn't even get a ranking, as it's only meant to teach you how to manage Mother Base, so if you finish Ocelot's training you won't have to come back to Main Ops 02 ever again.

The shower stations on Mother Base are used to give yourself a health and reflex time bonus, reflex time being the slow-motion effect that starts when you get spotted. The bonus lasts for five in-game days and decreases with every passing day until it runs out. Taking a shower also cleans off any blood on Big Boss's clothes that you might want to wash off. The closest shower station is just a bit west of the landing pad and it can be seen on the map in your iDroid.

The shower bonus isn't important enough to warrant returning to Mother Base just to shower, but if you don't like having a bunch of blood on you then you'll be picking up this small bonus as you shower anyway.

After finishing Main Ops 02, feel free to check the pages in this walkthrough about Mother Base, items, and other tips. You should also listen to all of the tapes you've collected thus far, as they go into detail of the story a bit more. For example, some of the earlier tapes explain that the V you were referred to by the nurse in the Cyrpus hospital stood for Venom Snake, which is one of your new codenames (aside from the ever-standing Big Boss).

Note: You are required to listen to all the tapes marked in yellow at some point.

You'll be able to choose in which order you want to do the next three Main Ops in. Main Ops 03 is generally the best one to do first, but you can go in whichever order you feel like.

Main Ops 03: A Hero's Way

Remove the Phantom Cigar from your loadout because you really don't need to be speeding up time and it consumes resources to leave with it. Try to extract everyone you can here so you can raise your R&D level. By getting it to Lv07, you'll be able to improve the iDroid, Int-Scope, and tranquilizer, which is very important in the early game.

The objective here is to eliminate a commander stationed in Shago Village. To get to him, you'll have to either hold up or tranquilize his men until you get to him, then Fulton out all of the guys you came across (including the commander) you can so you can raise your Mother Base levels. After that, go for any other soldiers in the area before leaving the hot zone yourself.

After this mission, if it's the first one you play after Main Ops 02, you'll be able to develop items for your ACC (chopper) and D-Horse. Additionally, some staff members like Hideo Kojima himself that you rescued in Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes will join you on occasion from now on. You'll also unlock your very first Side Ops; of the first two, you should aim to finish Side Ops 001 immediately, as it will allow you to finally interrogate enemy soldiers.

Note: During Side Ops 001, you may also find a small puppy in the wilds of Afghanistan. If not, then you should look around the general area for it and Fulton it to Mother Base. This little guy is going to be a great partner once he's grown up. In order for DD to grow into an adult, you need to visit Mother Base six times after finishing Main Ops. Three of those times have to be after later missions, being Main Ops 07-10.

Main Ops 04: C2W

Note: It's advisable to develop C4 for this mission if you haven't already.

Here, you just need to disable communication equipment so reinforcements can stop being sent between outposts for a short while. Try to interrogate people outside of the comms outpost and ask them to "Spit it out"; this may tell you the exact location of the equipment that you need to destroy. Either disable the enemy or wait for a sandstorm so you can sneak into the building that the equipment is in, then toss a hand grenade or plant some C4 to get the job done. If you go with C4, you'll be able to get farther away so you can leave the hot zone faster and finish the mission without having to deal with the alert caused after the explosion.

After this Main Ops, if you've been extracting a bunch of soldiers, your Base Development Unit should be created on Mother Base. This unit creates and refines resources, and develops more platforms to make Mother Base much larger. This will drastically increase Mother Base's potential over time, so try to improve this unit quickly.

The Challenge Task list will also be available, which provides rewards for things you'd do normally by playing the game. Check in here every once in a while and grab some free stuff.

Main Ops 05: Over the Fence

The engineer that created Big Boss's mechanical hand is being held in Afghanistan after having tried to escape to the west. If you can get him to Mother Base, he should be able to improve the hand and give it more functionality.

Use the landing zone on the left so you can more easily scale the slope upwards towards the main part of the barracks. Take out soldiers in your way and extract them using the methods described in the second, more elaborate tips page, as this saves ammunition. The prisoner is located in the large, ruinous building to the northwest, which is easily visible on your iDroid. Either sneak him out of the base to extract him from a safe distance or Fulton him through a hole in the ceiling, then leave the hot zone to end the mission.

You'll now be able to add modifications to your bionic arm. These improvements range quite a bit in terms of what they improve upon; one increases reflex time, while others add a sonar function to locate enemies and other things. These act as perks and stack, so you should try to upgrade the arm when you can.

Main Ops 06: Where Do the Bees Sleep?

You get this mission from the U.S. government after finishing two of the three prior Main Ops. They're interested in a high-tech missile launcher named the Honey Bee, which was in possession of the rebels fighting the Soviets. This weapon was given to them by the CIA, and they don't want it to fall into Russian hands after the rebels' defeat. Do not expect this mission to go as smoothly as the previous may have gone.

It's a long ride to Da Smasei Laman. The Hamid survivor that Kaz mentions will be found at the Mountain Relay base, but he won't be of much use to you; he's deaf, and he can't write out where the Honey Bee is. You should extract him here, however, as the Soviets will take him to Da Smasei Laman so he can physically show them where the Honey Bee is hidden.

It's going to be very difficult to get past the enemy gunship up ahead since there are enemy forces on the ground. If you wait for a little while, the chopper should move west, giving you enough time to move towards the west path leading up to the target location. The western flank leads to a cliff that allows you to scope out the area for enemies, whereas the eastern is a road into the base. Check for as many enemies as possible before taking care of a few or entering the caves.

There are lots of diamonds in this cave; pick them up when you see them, then try to move up through the main entrance so you can access the eastern side of this cave system. You should be looking for a set of small doorways by a tall light pole, which will have Soviet soldiers walking around it if you didn't manage to set off an alarm. The Honey Bee isn't inside these doors, but they serve as a good spot to look for a tunnel to the north of them. Northwest of the water is a set of rooms, with the main room having some candles inside. Behind the candles to the right is a tiny storage room; look behind some crates and beer bottles for the Honey Bee. There's a much larger tunnel south of the pool of water that will allow you to get outside of the entire cave system quickly.

Big Boss will make an encounter with a man first seen in Ground Zeroes: Skull Face. Alongside him is a massive machine and the Skulls. When you're dropped towards the Skulls, immediately whistle for D-Horse so you can ride him out of there as fast as you can and head west. Avoid using the Honey Bee if you can. Mother Base will automatically send the ACC in that direction to pick you up.

Kaz will create an Intel Team for Mother Base, which will identify resources and enemies' rough positions. They'll also predict the weather and other things.

Main Ops 07: Red Brass

Three Soviet commanders are all meeting up at Da Wialo Kallai, which you've already been to before during Main Ops 01. This is a very simple mission. All you have to do is head to the village and wait for two of the commanders to show up, then take care of the third that's already stationed there. You should aim to extract all three of them and their squads to beef up your staff numbers. After dealing with the commanders, the mission will be over.

If you extract all three commanders, you'll learn that the soldiers in this region of Afghanistan are getting more proper gear thanks to your strong attacks against them. The Medical Team should also be established after this mission as well. The next mission you should try to play is Main Ops 10; skipping 08 and 09 will be a good idea for now.

Main Ops 08: Occupation Forces

For this mission, use the western landing zone and bring the best C4 you've got. If you have a rocket launcher of some kind, then that's even better.

You first need to find a colonel in Sakhra Ee Village and locate the information leading to the path his tanks will be traveling on; you've got a bunch of time for this, so capture the entire place if you have to. When the coast is clear, scale the buildings to the top of the cliffside and scan the intel to get the path going. There are at least two options you can go with now.

  1. Set up a bit of C4 for the first tank that follows the road, then get fairly far away and try to wait behind the two other vehicles. Extract the two other vehicles, including the commander.
  2. Line up a bunch of C4 and blow all the vehicles up. It's not like you need a tank at the moment anyway; this is Main Ops 08.

Note: After your eighth Main Ops, the Combat Unit should be developed on Mother Base. You can send staff from the Combat Unit on dispatch missions to earn significant amounts of GMP. This is also the best time to explore the entirety of Afghanistan since you can now make money on the side while doing so. Fully exploring Afghanistan while looking for delivery points and anti-air radars will make return missions to the region far easier to pull off. More information on this is on the page dedicated to Afghanistan. As you start out, make + Cargo 2 for Fulton Recovery Devices a primary goal to obtain.

Main Ops 09: Backup, Back Down

The objective is to destroy as many enemy vehicles as possible, which can be just one vehicle your first time around if you really feel like it. There will be two targets at the start of the mission; follow the closest one with D-Horse and wait for it to come to a stop near a base, then extract it if you've got the proper upgrades for your Fulton Device. If not, then blow the thing up with explosives. If you shoot the thing with a single bullet (not from a tranquilizer round) it'll stop right in its tracks.

Do this same thing over again with the second vehicle, which should be a lot closer now. The third will appear on the map, and you should use D-Horse to block the path so you can stop this vehicle and Fulton it/destroy it as well. After the third vehicle is down, go for the one that has prisoners inside of it, as that one is closer. You can just Fulton the vehicle with him in it.

After that, just go for vehicles at your own discretion. D-Horse serves as a great roadblock for stopping all of these vehicles.

Note: You will at some point want to return to this mission to recover a prisoner with the Cybernetics Specialist skill. The medical enhancements for your arm are locked behind this man, and they're all very useful to have. You can find him in the path between two mountains west of Outpost 15.

Main Ops 10: Angel With Broken Wings

There's a prisoner named Malak held up in the ruins here that needs to be extracted. There are in fact several prisoners here, and all of them have vital skills for development at Mother Base. Try to be very quick about getting through the ruins and stopping any soldiers that may cause harm to the prisoners. There's a third prisoner inside one of the metal sheds to the north; he's the last one, so follow the instructions given to you by Kaz and go north to find Malak.

The base here is very large, and you'll likely have a hard time even approaching the thing. You could try jumping into the shallow stream south of the base and running upstream until you can run up closer to the building itself. There's a back entrance you can take that will allow you to get into the "courtyard". Be careful and slowly sweep the base, Fultoning everyone out to make things easier for you. There are two more prisoners here as well, and you should try to bring them to Mother Base safely to collect the full set.

If you destroy the massive anti-air radar in the courtyard, you'll be able to call in the chopper for landing so you can leave right from the middle of the base. This is important because Malak will be too injured for a Fulton extraction. There's another LZ very close to the north, however, so if you don't want to go through the trouble, you don't have to.

Note: After your eighth Main Ops, the Combat Unit should be developed on Mother Base. You can send staff from the Combat Unit on dispatch missions to earn significant amounts of GMP. This is also the best time to explore the entirety of Afghanistan since you can now make money on the side while doing so. Fully exploring Afghanistan while looking for delivery points and anti-air radars will make return missions to the region far easier to pull off. More information on this is on the page dedicated to Afghanistan. As you start out, make + Cargo 2 for Fulton Recovery Devices a primary goal to obtain.

Main Ops 11: Cloaked in Silence

After finishing a few of the Main Ops between 07-10, you'll eventually get a call about a sniper in the ruins to the north that is never seen, but leaves a trail of bodies in its wake. Travel to the Aabe Shifap Ruins and you'll find her. The easiest way to take her down, which everyone probably knows about before they even get here, is to mark her with the Int-Scope and call a supply drop on her head. You have to do this twice to knock her out.

After knocking her out, decide what to do with her. The optimal thing to do is to listen to Ocelot and bring her home to base, as she can prove to be quite useful later.

On the way back to Mother Base, the ACC will undergo a slight interruption. Quiet will be put into a cell on the medical platform when you return to base. Additionally, if you've finished at least ten of the Main Ops, the Animal Conservation Platform will be constructed. This place is free of charge and is managed by another organization, but you can visit the animals you've retrieved and pick up some plants for your own use.

Finishing ten Main Ops should bring DD to full maturity, if you retrieved him at the time suggested. This will unlock him as a buddy to replace D-Horse on missions if you so choose.

  • Cry Havoc

    Make D-Dog available for deployment.

    Cry Havoc
    Offline Mode - These trophies require play in game modes that do not require a connection to any live services, such as Play Station Network.Single Player - These trophies can be obtained by a single player.Collectable - These trophies are obtained by exploring the game environment to find a set of unique objects.

Side Ops 082: Make Contact with Emmerich

After finishing ten Main Ops, you'll get word that Huey Emmerich has actually contacted Diamond Dogs to be rescued from the place he's being held up in. Since he is highly likely to be responsible for the attack nine years ago, it's in your best interest to find him. Get to Serak Power Plant however you see fit and head to the base's back gate, where you'll find a locked door. Emmerich will be inside, but he'll be moved to the main camp up north before you can get to him.

Main Ops 12: Hellbound

You'll have to follow Huey to the base, but all the soldiers you've previously downed at the power plant are back, and there's a gunship to boot. Try to slink by everyone as best you can, although it may be hard to do so unseen. If you can make it out of there without any fighting, then ride D-Horse all the way up to the base or use a delivery point if you've got the two unlocked.

When you get to the base, Fulton as many enemies as you can out of the base so you can get a cleaner escape going later. Then look for the chopper and wait for it to hover slightly above the ground; you'll want to plant some C4 there and blow it when the chopper returns to that spot. If it never quite touches the ground, then ignore it for now. Take care of whoever you can and reach Huey, whose location you can find by interrogating soldiers.

Huey will offer to let you use a Walker Gear he's developed to leave the base more efficiently. Accept his offer and either use it properly or Fulton it safely back to base, then head to the landing zone which is automatically selected for you. Getting there is simple enough, but now you'll have to make it to another landing zone while a much larger force is looking for you: Sahelanthropus. Do what you can to get to the next LZ and try to get on board with Huey, then use the minigun to defend the chopper from Sahelanthropus's attacks.

Huey will be interrogated by Kaz and Revolver Ocelot, and will then be hidden inside the same cell for his own safety. He'll be contributing to your R&D Team. The only useful information you'll be able to squeeze out of him is that Cipher has moved their operations from Afghanistan to Africa. You'll now be taking part in some missions over there starting now.

Main Ops 13: Pitch Dark

For your first Africa mission, you'll be disabling an oil treatment plant, as it's contaminating the area after a large oil spill. You'll find a squad of child soldiers when you reach Masa Village for the first time, and you'll be instructed not to hurt them (or the mission is over). Try to avoid them this time and head towards Mfinda Oil Field, which is where you're meant to be going. Sneak through the plant and reach the top of the facility to get to the office, which is where you'll be able to shut off the operations here. Next, get to the oil tank and plant some C4 on it, then head to the southern corner of the base. You should have the second cargo upgrade by now, which allows you to take the two resource containers here. Fulton one of them, and then stand on top of the other and hold cn_T continuously until you're taken out of the hot zone with the cargo.

Kaz will inform you about the SANR corporation and their involvement in the spill, and will then question what those corpses were doing in the oil. You'll now also be able to deploy your own Walker Gear, which will be called D-Walker by Huey.

Main Ops 14: Lingua Franca

Time to get your own Afrikaans interpreter. The one here is British, and several other Brits are being held prisoner by the Afrikaners here. The guy who called in the request said it was fine to ignore the other British, but it's always good to have more crew. You're supposed to tail the interpreter to the prisoner, but it's far more enjoyable to just tranquilize him and look for the prisoner yourself. Make sure you Fulton the interpreter at one point. You can find some intel on the prisoners' locations inside a house near the swampy area of the camp. Depending on the location of the prisoner, you may or may not be able to leave the hot zone quickly.

You may receive a call from Ocelot requesting you to visit Quiet's cell on the medical platform. Doing so will allow her to be deployed as a buddy.

Note: You may want to completely explore Africa as you (hopefully) did with Afghanistan, as this is the first opportunity for it to be a good idea.

Main Ops 15: Footprints of Phantoms

A rebellion in Angola has sent a request for Diamond Dogs to eliminate all of the Walker Gears that threaten their troops. The targets are in the abandoned village of Ditadi. The village is positioned on an upward slope, so it may be difficult to work upwards towards the four Walker Gears; you can alternatively attack from the backside to make things significantly easier.

By removing all of the Walker Gears, the PF will order more from Cipher, and their payment convoy is Diamond Dogs' next target.

Main Ops 16: Traitors' Caravan

The escort for the PF's payment to Cipher should be at a nearby guard post, but it will have already left the area. Search for some intel at the post and then head south towards the airport. On the vehicles' predicted route, you'll find the convoy, and when you get close the Skulls will come in to act as guards.

Assuming you've found these things on the road, sneak behind the tank in back and extract it, then knock out the soldiers affected by the Skulls' mist with ONLY headshots if possible. Being the first time through, you'll want to go for the other tank and the truck itself, but the Skulls make for a deadly set of foes. If you can manage, continue to Fulton the cargo truck until the Skulls slip up and let it get away, then run as far as you can out of the hot zone to end the mission.

The cargo you recovered will be found to be related to nukes, but not enough of a material to be for creating a nuke itself.

Main Ops 17: Rescue the Intel Agents

It appears two Intel Team staff members have been captured by those who were attacked at the oil field, the CFA. If you don't rescue these men, then Mother Base will want revenge and the relationship between the two factions will just get worse and worse.

You should be able to find one of the guys fairly quickly into the camp. Fultoning him out will result in him telling you where exactly the other soldier is.The second staff member is, as you'd expect, on the complete opposite side of the area. He's wounded and cannot survive a Fulton extraction, so you'll have to get him out of there by chopper with you. This second guy will say that the CFA is blaming Diamond Dogs for some kind of disease, which is the one that you witnessed at the oil field.

Main Ops 18: Blood Runs Deep

There are six soldiers that need to be killed, so says the general of these soldiers. He's ordering this so his men don't talk when captured.

One of the soldiers defected to the local PF and is working as a standard guard at the Bampeve Plantation. Find him, then kill or extract him and avoid the enemy gunship as you do so. The next point of interest is the mine, which is where the remaining five soldiers are working. The entrance to the mine is on the southern rim of the place. Once you've found your remaining soldiers, get them to the the extraction point.

Take the injured soldier and carry him on your back as the five of you get through the swamp leading up to the LZ. The gunship and other soldiers will make this fairly difficult.

Main Ops 19: On the Trail

The commander of the Rogue Coyotes is getting the idea of dealing in nuclear armaments. It'd be a good idea to eliminate the commander, or at least remove him from the Rogue Coyotes. The Major is supposed to meet with one of his subordinates, who is at the nearby guard post. Instead of having to trail this guy for thousands of meters of road, just head southeast of the 13th guard post on the map and find the Major there early. If you feel like it, wait for the guy who plans to meet with the Major and extract him as well. Doing this will fulfill a Mission Task early so you don't have to do this later.

Once you're done here, Huey should have developed a weapon to fight back against the Walker Gears, named the Battle Gear. Kaz also has another mission for you, this time from one of the ex-soldiers you rescued in Main Ops 18. There's one boy named Shabani who led the five that was taken to Ngumba Industrial Zone, which was coincidentally bought by Cipher.

Main Ops 20: Voices

You can only deploy a long distance away from the Industrial Zone. When you make it through the thin tunnel leading to the place, get through the heavy mist and plants until you reach a tunnel leading into the Industrial Zone. Be sure to resupply while you're outside, then enter the building on the other end of the tunnel.

When you leave this building, try to stun the Man on Fire by blowing up water coolers and the large water towers when he's near them. That'll give you some time to get through the tunnel and evacuate the area. If you approach the tunnel while he's active, it'll be destroyed, and you'll have to call in the chopper for an extraction instead.

Main Ops 21: The War Economy

Note: At some point in this mission, you may get a call from Kaz about an enemy presence taking over one of your structures. This leads into Main Ops 22.

The socialist rebels of the region want you to get rid of a CFA official at Nova Braga Airport. If you approach the airport as you'd normally do, you may trigger a soft alert, preventing the inspector that he's supposed to meet up with from landing. That's okay, because this isn't about the inspector, this is about the official. Look for him inside a building in the back of the airport and kill or extract him to fulfill the objective, then leave however you see fit.

Main Ops 22: Retake the Platform

You'll get a call from Kaz about enemy forces moving into the base and taking over one of your platforms without anyone knowing until it's too late. You will not be allowed to ask for supplies, as the enemy may see that as an attack and shoot the hostages they've taken. Try to hold up enemies so you can eliminate them without using ammo as you get to the top of the main platform.

The culprit behind this attack is an ex-MSF member who had the events of the past mixed up simply due to misinformation.

After this attack, you'll be able to construct a Forward Operating Base, or FOB for short, where you can house more Diamond Dogs and create an entirely new place similar to Mother Base. Doing this is very important, as you'll never be able to truly reach full potential without several FOBs. You'll also be able to infiltrate other FOBs to collect more resources, which is significantly faster than retrieving them in the field. Given that the game is no longer new, there should be many bases out there for you to loot without retaliation from their owners.

Main Ops 23: The White Mamba

A child nicknamed the White Mamba is leading a group of child soldiers as they terrorize and invade Masa Village. The best way to get to the White Mamba undetected is to tranquilize, hold up, or use CQC on his fellow soldiers. You'll want to kick them awake if you ended up knocking them out, which will allow you to hold them up. If you didn't read the other tips page, targets held up on the ground will never budge, as they don't actually know if you're still behind them. If you don't want much hassle later, consider going through the hassle of putting all the child soldiers on the chopper before reaching the White Mamba in the shipwreck.

This kid isn't going down without a fight. He moves through the ship like liquid, and you'll have to use CQC to counter his attacks several times before he finally gets tired.

When you bring the White Mamba to Mother Base, he'll still be a bit hesitant to lose. Cassette tapes inform you of his true name.

Main Ops 24: Close Contact

Two engineers have gone missing after being deployed into the area. They've been regular attendees to Cipher's base in one of the previous Main Ops, where you fought the Man on Fire. When you get to the female engineer, she'll tell you about what her work has consisted of in the region, which includes work on the strange infection you've seen. It's very simple to get them both to Mother Base.

If you haven't rescued a female prisoner yet, then this will be the one to get you a trophy.

Main Ops 25: Aim True, Ye Vengeful

The Mbele rebels have a set of child soldiers that have defected from them with the brother of the general. The objective is to extract the brother and the child platoon leader. The mission is surprisingly easy due to the layout of the area; child soldiers are fairly compacted into the camp and there's only one prisoner to speak of, which is the one you're after. If you go to the southern LZ to put both targets in the chopper, then you'll find a third prisoner to extract with a Fulton Device.

After finishing Main Ops 24 and 25, the infection will break out on Mother Base. There's one thing connecting the infection's spread, and you'll be tasked with quarantining everyone who you deem may be susceptible to the disease. You're never going to accurately guess what it is, but it'll be put in spoilers just in case you don't want to know right away.

*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***

You'll need to quarantine absolutely everyone who meets the qualification if you want to reduce the casualties to the lowest amount possible. In order to get rid of this quarantine epidemic, you'll want to power through the next couple of Main Ops until it's over.

Main Ops 26: Hunting Down

A human trafficker is trying to leave the country, and his position is currently unknown. Head to the abandoned village and grab some intel on his location, then follow his field of movement backwards to find him and his men. They'll all be moving on foot, so they'll be easy to reach once you find them. Do not extract anyone but the target (unless you decide to kill him); you may as well not bother until the epidemic is over.

If you extract the target, he'll tell the crew about the infection and something about a forest.

Main Ops 27: Root Cause

An Intel Team member needs rescuing. He thinks he's figured out the cause of the infection on Mother Base, but he's been captured by a PF. Infiltrate the guard post and look for the building pictured in the missions tab of your iDroid. After finding out that the prisoner is not here, look around and you'll eventually see him take off in a truck. He's going to drive the truck towards a cliff and bail when it gets there, so just follow him and pick him up so you can take him to the chopper.

The team member will lead you to a man who knows how to treat the infection, named Code Talker.

Main Ops 28: Code Talker

When you approach the mansion Code Talker is said to be in, you'll come across a strange mist. This one isn't like the one outside of Ngumba Industrial Zone; this is the one you usually see when something difficult is about to pop up at you in a group of four. These Skulls are female and will very quickly pull out sniper rifles in order to stop you. Get behind a rock and scope one of them out with your binoculars so you can figure out where they are, then call in a sniper rifle of your own and fire at them from behind cover.

When you get past the Skulls, approach the mansion carefully and work through soldiers until you can get inside. Then work your way down to the very bottom to find Code Talker. Listen to what he has to say, then take him to the northwest LZ so you can avoid the enemy gunship.

Main Ops 29: Metallic Archaea

As you leave for Mother Base, the strong mist will return over the chopper with you and Code Talker inside of it. You'll be surrounded by the Skulls when you land, and will have to defeat all of them to save yourself. Bring Quiet along with you as a buddy so she can help fight them, as D-Dog won't be of much use. You should go with some kind of strong assault rifle or machine gun with a fair amount of ammo and perhaps a rocket launcher. Try to be quick about calling in a resupply. After enough support from Quiet and breaking through their shields to weaken their health bar, you'll eventually be able to defeat all four of them and extract Code Talker.

Code Talker will explain more of Skull Face's plan, and afterwards you'll be told that you can develop a parasite suit. To develop it, you'll need to extract Skulls themselves. Huey will be interrogated once again to reveal the location of Metal Gear Sahelanthropus, being at a base known as OKB Zero.

Main Ops 30: Skull Face

Approach OKB Zero and try to slip past the initial XOF soldiers so you can start extracting them. If you have to shoot at any of these soldiers, go for their legs. You'll be able to Fulton out about a dozen soldiers or so before you even get through the front door. There are three massive areas that you need to sneak through in order to make contact with Skull Face. It's going to be a difficult journey through this place, but as long as you try Fultoning everyone out so they're no longer a threat, then it should be alright. The goal is Skull Face's heliport at the very back of the base. Move towards the helipad until you reach the staircase leading up to it. Go down the stairs south of the helipad and reach the top of the elevator for a hidden cassette tape so you don't have to replay the mission to get the tape later.

Once you reach Skull Face, follow him around to the vehicles parked nearby and get in with him. This will take you all the way to Serak Power Plant. The mission will end eventually.

Main Ops 31: Sahelanthropus

Bring as many explosives weapons as you can with you for this mission. If you aren't currently confident in your explosives, you can always come back later after they're more developed. Unleash all of your ammo onto Sahelanthropus and grab supply drops when they come in until the thing finally falls. Your first target should be the four white canisters on its back, as these are explosive and will heavily damage Metal Gear. After this, the only other weak spot is its core when it's exposed. When Sahelanthropus uses its rail gun, get behind some kind of solid cover and stay there to avoid the attack. Hit the other child when he appears and continue to aim for the core in the chest.

Note: If you exhaust your ammo on a weapon, Ocelot will call in a supply drop for you. Do this with both of your primary weapons so the second supply drop can fall on the ground earlier than usual.

When you've defeated Metal Gear, head to Skull Face and you'll be given a choice. Abstaining leads to a far more interesting cutscene.

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